Trump trial live: Jury begins deliberating fate of Donald Trump in historic hush money trial

Alex Woodward reports from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan:

Moments after jurors began deliberating in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, the former president called “the whole thing rigged” and suggested that even Mother Teresa wouldn’t be able to escape a conviction.

“These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged,” he told reporters in a hallway outside a 15th floor courtroom in Manhattan on Wednesday.

“And we have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe,” he said. ‘He’s got to do his job. It’s a disgrace. Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do. It’s a very disgraceful situation.”

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Justice Merchan is back on the bench: “We've received a note.”

It’s signed by the foreperson, at 2:56pm.

It contains four requests: David Pecker’s testimony regarding his phone conversation with Trump; Pecker’s testimony regarding his decision not to finalize the life rights for McDougal; Pecker’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting; and Cohen’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting.

The jury has pushed a buzzer and is sending a note to the judge.

Donald Trump is back in the courtroom and so is the prosecution team.

New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, one of several prominent GOP figures currently jostling to be Donald Trump’s running mate, has filed a misconduct complaint against Judge Juan Merchan, alleging that his appointment to Mr Trump’s ongoing Manhattan hush money trial was “not random at all”.

The House Republican Conference chairwoman wrote to Kay-Ann Porter Campbell, inspector-general of the New York State Unified Court System, calling for an investigation “to determine whether the required random selection process was in fact followed” when Judge Merchan was handed the case brought against Mr Trump by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg last spring.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

Here’s what Donald Trump posted this lunchtime:

IT IS RIDICULOUS, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND UNAMERICAN that the highly Conflicted, Radical Left Judge is not requiring a unanimous decision on the fake charges against me brought by Soros backed D.A. Alvin Bragg. A THIRD WORLD ELECTION INTERFERENCE HOAX!

And here’s our reporting on the jury instructions:

All 12 jurors must be unanimous in delivering a guilty or not guilty verdict.

In order to find him guilty, the jury must agree that Mr Trump “personally or by acting in concert with a person or other persons, made or contributed to false invoices” and did so with the intent to defraud, and that he conspired to influence the election by those “unlawful means.”

Alex Woodward reports from Lower Manhattan:

Donald Trump’s “catch and kill” scheme to buy up stories about his alleged sex scandals launched a conspiracy to corruptly influence the 2016 presidential election, what Manhattan prosecutors called his attempt to “hoodwink” voters with his fraudulent scheme to keep politically crushing stories away from the public.

“It was the subversion of democracy,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, who delivered an epic closing statement to jurors in the former president’s hush money trial on Tuesday.

Mr Trump sought to rob voters of the truth, “to manipulate and defraud the voters, to pull the wool over their eyes in a coordinated fashion,” according to Mr Steinglass.

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Just hours after former Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone stood outside of Manhattan criminal court and called Donald Trump an “authoritarian”, his mother’s home was reportedly swatted.

Mr Fanone told NBC News that his 78-year-old mother opened her door to law enforcement officers and SWAT team members on Tuesday night after an individual sent a fake “manifesto” posing as Mr Fanone threatening to harm others and claiming he killed his mother.

Ariana Baio reports:

Alex Woodward reports:

Michael Cohen is “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt,” the “MVP of liars” and “the GLOAT: the greatest liar of all time,” according to Donald Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche.

In his closing arguments to jurors in the former president’s hush money trial on Tuesday, Mr Blanche repeatedly accused Mr Trump’s one-time “fixer” of lying throughout his testimony and suggested that Manhattan prosecutors had willingly offered up a star witness “to commit perjury to lie to you.”

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